African dream herb

A dying traditional game, given a fresh lease of life at the ongoing Karbi Youth Festival (KYF) in central Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, has fuelled a drive for conserving a creeper known as the African dream herb.

About African dream herb

A perennial climbing vine that is used by African traditional healers to induce vivid dreams that enables them to communicate efficiently with their ancestors.
Common names: Giant sea bean, African dream herb, snuff box and Entada rheedii
Distribution and habitat: It is indigenous to Africa, Asia, Australia and Madagascar. It grows in tropical lowlands, along the coastline and river banks, in woodland, thickets and riverine rain forests.
Uses
- A paste made from the leaves, bark and roots is used to clean wounds, treat burns and heal jaundice in children.
- Tea made from the whole plant is used to improve blood circulation to the brain and heal the after-effects of a stroke.
- The bark is used to treat diarrhoea, dysentery and parasitic infections.
This creeper yields a dark brown and spherical seed, almost the size of a human patella or kneecap, used to play ‘Hambi Kepathu’. Associated with the origin of the Karbi community.

Hambi Kepathu?

It is also known as Simrit in some parts of Karbi Anglong, is played on three rectangular courts by two teams comprising three members each.
Each member of a team has to place a ‘hambi’, or the glazed creeper seed, vertically on the midpoint of the boundary line of his court for a player of the rival team to hit with his ‘hambi’.
Hambi Kepathu, whose name is derived from the first syllables of the names of a Karbi sister-brother duo, is a male-only game like other traditional Karbi games such as ‘Pholong’ (spinning top), ‘Thengtom Langvek’ (torch swimming), and ‘Kengdongdang’ (bamboo stilt race).

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